Warm weather is back, it's nice to be outside

Chloe's new bicycle

Look out Portland, there's a new rig in town:

Now get some bar tape on there and let us know about your first century!

Photo from the Formerly Large Fella.

Pat Starr, restaurateur and self-powered transportation creator; legit all the way

Pat Starr is the son of a retired mechanical engineering professor of the same name; while Pat lacks the formal PhD, he's definitely got the engineering bug. Pat can't seem to rest whether he's hoisting an engine out of a car in his backyard using ropes and a tree branch, welding together parts into a new cruising mobile, or fixing up his delicious fare on the west bank.

Pat showing off his latest creation, a brakeless, singlespeed, full suspension, city cruiser:

He broke the steer tube off a rigid fork mounted on this the previous day.

One of his many homemade bicycle-based vehicles, this one a multi-pedal powered flatbed cargo hauler sometimes used to haul automobile engines to the scrapyard for cash:

No, there are no brakes; "you have to plan ahead," Pat says.

Pat is a family man first; if he's on the town, it's common for his wife and kids to be close by:

Proven that even he's legit, Pat made it on the TV channels; a clean shaven face, freshly washed clothes, and a shiny kitchen are a must for prime time:

While The Wienery is a bit of a different place than it was just a few years ago, it's for the better and we look forward to hundreds of more visits over the years to come.

Oh, and don't bank on those hours on the website; they're more of an idea than a schedule.

we always keep 'em single file

You know this wasn't us, we don't drink light beer.

Kudos for style though.

Ahearne Cycle Truck

Remember the three Ahearne cargo bikes we were introduced to back in February? They now have themselves a special place on the web, check it out for description and order details.

Bikers Bazaar

From our own Heidi:

Saturday, April 17th 10am-4pm

The Freewheel Bike Shop in the Midtown Bike Center on the Greenway is having a craft fair with over 20 LOCAL artists and crafters selling everything including, upcycled bike part jewelry, baby clothes, handmade wooden utensils, zines, paintings, hair accessories, bags and much much more.

Bring your bike for a tune-up while you shop the local vendors’ wares. Sample what Peace Coffee is brewing, try some pastries from Isles Bun and Coffee, or get a cone of Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream.

Check out what we offer the community and commuters with a community shop, bike shower, locker room and bike accessories.

We’re located behind the Midtown Global Market, on the same level as the Greenway, accessible by bike, car, bus and foot.

Our address is 2834 10th Ave.

If you come in through the Global Market we’ll have signs leading you through the skyway and down the elevator to our shop.

For those not traveling the Greenway, there is some street parking along both 10th and 11th Avenues. There are stairways and accessible paths leading to the Greenway from both streets.

We’re excited to see you!

There's a page on FB, if you're into that sort of thing.

We're number one (maybe)

Why did Bicycling magazine recently rank MPLS as the #1 city in the country for bicyclists? PDX should have won hands down in the rankings, but the same old just gets old after a while. And since when did anyone care about what Bicycling magazine has to say? If you're looking for an SUV advertisement, by all means go pick it up; if you're looking for the review of the latest mass produced carbon fiber bike on the market, by all means; if you're looking for a review of the top ten best matching tandem kits, again, please go pick it up and fill out that subscription card. For the rest of us, it's time to just live our lives and not depend on what an editor in a far away land has to say about a city he or she can't spot on a map to begin with.

We understand this is UC Davis, perhaps they'll be #1 next year...

Easter has come and gone

Hopefully everybody got out and did some riding this weekend. This weekend seemed more like July fourth than Easter, but we'll take it easy either way.

We've got friends and colleagues in Europe that had Friday and Monday off as holidays, while others in Mexico got last Thursday and Friday off. Damn hippies.

Rode down to New Prague and back, had to cross the river of course. Highway 101 is closed due to flooding, but we made it across without issue. We've heard tales of authority types stationed on the river not allowing passage to peds or bicyclists, hopefully none of you have to take the long detour.

In other news, here's a shot of the first bicycle with S&S couplings. A-sa-weet!

Happy Easter

There's no better day to be a proud American Christian than today, Easter 2010. We were spotted by the paparazzi this morning heading to the early mass at Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle:

Another win for the USofA

The question we all ask of ourselves: what is the best food to pack on long rides? Some pack energy bars, gel goo packs, pb&j sandwiches, sticks of butter, and the like. Well we were just introduced to this protein pack that might be the ultimate solution to any century riders food sourcing dilemna, and to think you can just pick it up in the drive thru on the outskirts of town. Rejoice, the gods are looking out for us. What's that, you're a vegetarian or worse yet, a vegan? No comment.


In other news, we just found a hidden Easter egg from last year, hidden in the laundry pile. What were we thinking?

Oh, remember that Urgent Care visit a few weeks back? Got the bill. Total charges: $159, total owed by patient: $100.80. What the fuck is the point of having insurance? Was forced into enrolling into this bullshit HSA medical plan, which "make[s] consumers more responsible for their own health care choices." That's where "responsibility" means seeking the advice of Google versus visiting a doctor, which of course will lower the cost for all of us! Winner winner Double Down dinner!

Get out there and ride, don't forget the sunblock and spare tube(s).

MPLS bike man blows his wad

With the upcoming publication of a new blog post, matched with the utter surprise of the latest season of spring, executives on the upper floor of the attic have decided to reveal the identity of this blog author, solely for a ratings boost to be sure, to be none other than...

this guy:

And here, prior to a nightly hummus wrap and Belgian beer:


By the way, that's a typo up top, should say "cover" not "wad". We do regret any inconvenience.